Society New Humanism

All We Need Is

LOVE
The global crisis is, paradoxically, having
a positive effect: it is revolutionizing
priorities. And humanity is returning as
the center of thought and action.
BY ROSELINA SALEMI

Translated and reprinted with permission from LEspresso magazine.

Photo: J. Ziewe Ikon Images / Corbis

hey come from different walks

of lifeengineers, doctors,
physicists, humanists, philosophers, managers, bankers. They
are everyday people and, without being aware of it, are part of a great
worldwide community, The Cultural
Creatives. Identified and named by
American sociologist Paul Ray, it is a
peaceful army that is growing day by day
(their calling card is Obamas first election to the presidency). It doesnt know
its own strength, but will soon discover
it. The members make up 40% of the
population and by 2020 will reach 51%.
They number more women (57%) than
men and are not part of an elite group,
but share values such as commitment, a
sense of responsibility, a search for quality
of life and of work, and economic ethics.
They keep a distance from materialism,
individualism, unbridled competition,
and indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources. Their belief is that school
should begin with an education about
peace, self-awareness, and listening to
one another. Paul Hawken, founder of
WiserEarth, the largest social network for
sustainability in the world, calls this the
unstoppable multitudethe response
of humanitys immune system to resist
and heal from the illness of poisoned
politics and economics. In Bologna on
December 15, thousands arrived for the
first Global Awareness Day organized by
Nitamo Federico Montecucco, president
of the Club of Budapest, Italy. The objective was to form an international alliance
among associations and individuals of
different political, religious, and cultural
backgrounds that would have at its core
the themes of ethics, sustainability, and
responsibility for the well-being of mankind and the planet, an objective until
now pursued through isolated and fragmented efforts. The Global Census is creating a network (more than a million new
members in a year) and this is the future
critical mass.
By these means, the journey of
Vandana Shiva, Indian ecologist who
encourages the protection of biodiversity
(Occupy the earth, not the banks!) will
intersect with those of former vice president Al Gore, musician Peter Gabriel,
cultural industry scholar, nonagenarian
Edgar Morin, and emotional intelligence
theoretician Daniel Goleman. Rather than
speaking of crisis and money, they speak
of the challenge of change, of solidarity,

sustainability, and happiness. They look

at Costa Rica, which, in spite of being
ranked seventy-seventh for its GDP
(Gross Domestic Product), is ranked one
of the happiest countries in the world
by the World Database of Happiness. It
hasnt had an army since 1949, 95% of its
energy comes from renewable resources,
and the average life expectancy is 78.5
years. Its president, Laura Chinchilla,
speaks with overwhelming enthusiasm
of their model for development. In this
growing movement, still under the radar,
there is something of everythingcriticism of capitalism, anti-consumerist
sentiment, desire to achieve national
economic independencebut above
all there is the rediscovery of an emotional and cultural legacy that cannot
be quantified. Money depreciates the
value of solidarity, explains Enrico Cheli,
lecturer in the sociology of interpersonal
relations at the University of Siena, which
next year will publish its experimental
research on happiness. We must have
the courage to say that certain things do
not have a price. And these are precisely
those things which make us happy. We
must think in terms of absolute values;
we can do this, but the economy cannot.
The possession of objects that are not
indispensable, such as a second smartphone or a third television, is at the top
of the value scale for many people, and
the quest for satisfaction of these needs
takes time and resources away from more
fundamental necessities: health, relationships, affection, self-fulfillment.
Its true, the GDP measures everything, except that which makes life worth
living, as Robert Kennedy put it. There
are those who seek parameters to calculate the GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness)
or the FSW (Fair and Sustainable Wellbeing), an acronym created in Italy by the
National Council of Economics and Work
and by the National Institute of Statistics.
Meanwhile, at Harvard, psychologist
Daniel Gilbert has become extremely
popular with his science of affective forecasting, based on his mathematical

Its true, the GDP

measures everything,
except that which makes
life worth living, as
Robert Kennedy put it.
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Society
model for planning happiness. Since his
founding of the Hedonic Psychology
Laboratory hes been called the Smiling
Professor. Cheli maintains, somewhat
like Gilbert, that happiness can be
learned, and previewed the results of his
research to LEspresso. We conducted
a study for six months on 80 people
divided into two groups. One group
went to lessons on happiness; the other
did not. In the end, the group in which we
cultivated an attitude of happiness felt
better than the other group. There are
attitudes (understanding real priorities)
and emotional relationships (with family
and environment) that can profoundly
improve the quality of life. Belonging
to a supportive system produces major
benefits and lower costs, because it eliminates the intermediary of money. Next
year in Siena, the first masters program in
The Science of Well-being, the Quality
of Life and Happiness will be offered
(announcement in April, program beginning in October). Cheli and many others
are certain that, A new page in our history is about to be written. n

The

Common
Good
Is Advantageous

If things do not change

there will be chaos,
but there are signs of a
new awareness.
Ervin Laszlo

BY ROSELINA SALEMI

am part of the world. The world is in

me and I am in the world, begins the
sixteen-point Manifesto of the New
Awareness which Ervin Laszlo has
just written, a synthesis of his thoughts
and an invitation to change.

If we wish to face and solve problems,

we must follow Gandhi (Be the change
that you wish to see in the world.) and
Einstein (You cannot solve a problem with the same way of thinking that
created it.). We must abandon strong,
but often not verified, convictions, and
obsolete beliefs.
Ervin Laszlo, philosopher of science born
between two world wars, founder of the
Club of Budapest, and candidate for
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, is a very
young old man. Something has remained
in him of the former child prodigy, when
he played sixty piano concerts a year
and his mind was elsewhere while his
hands were flying over the keyboard. He
left music for science, and science for
philosophy. He has taught in America,
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If You Knew How Strange Is Love in Milan

What is the power of love and forgiveness in the globalized society; and in
what ways can these elements (if they
can) transform politics, work, sciences,
arts, and communication?
Certainly the term love has been
worn out and abused, and it needs now
to be returned its rightful significance.
As Martin Luther King said, love is not
a sentimental response to problems; on
the contrary, it is that force which all
of the great religions have seen as the
supreme unifying principle of life. It is
a sum of empathy, understanding, compassion, friendship, altruism, impulse,
attraction, energy, harmony, and reconciliation. Therefore, we need to reinstate
to this word all its contents, and give it
back the richness that it has lost.

The meeting is scheduled for March
20 in Milanan intense half day dedicated to The Power of Love. At this
occasion you will hear voices from all
over the world: the media artist Paul D.
Miller; the philosopher Ervin Laszlo; the
former judge Gherardo Colombo, who
wrote a report on conscious forgiveness;
the fashion designer Kavita Parmar; the
expert in leadership and management
Nancy Adler; the author Adam Kahane;

and Laura Olivetti, daughter of Adriano

and president of the foundation named
after him.
Each of these speakers will be
allowed 18 minutes. The call to arms
comes from TEDxNavigli, local broadcast of TED Conference, a nonprofit
organization devoted to ideas worth
spreading. TEDxNavigli is sponsored
by the Fetzer Institute, an American philanthropic foundation that supports projects that foster awareness of the power
that love and forgiveness can have in
our world. The team of TEDxNavigli
includes Fabrizio Caprara, president of
Saatchi & Saatchi Italy; Kevin Roberts,
CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide;
Annarita Eva, coach and evolution
manager; and Mariano Tomatis, writer
and art director. It is led by Ferdinando
Buscema, a magic experience designer
(engineer and illusionist) and Fetzer
Institute advisor who works in Milan,
New York, and Shanghai.
His specialty? Intertwining magic
and management so that the contemporary manager can benefit from the
lessons coming from a world apparently far away from that of magic, built
on the capacity of reading weak signals

and catching emerging tendencies in

order to facilitate the transition from
the archetype of warrior manager (see
Marketing Warfare!sacred text from
the eighties) to orchestra-conductor
type of manager who works to obtain the
perfect harmony. This is also the power
of love. R.S.

Photo: J. Ziewe Ikon Images / Corbis

Left: Ervin Laszlo. Right: Ferdinando Buscema, organizer of TEDxnavigli in Milan.

Europe, and Asia. He went beyond

Darwin in elaborating the general theory
of evolution. Now, at age 76, he will
be giving lessons via the Internet
(www.wisdomuniversity.org beginning
February 27), is constantly in touch with
his publisher in California, and is an enthusiastic supporter of the e-book, happy to
multiply the number of his students and
readers as has never before been possible for a philosopher. (His latest work
is online at www.akashaparadigm.com.)
Laszlo has seen the birth and death of
1968 and 1977, terrorism and the infatuation with free trade, and over the past
fifteen years has been the critical conscience of a world that has paid very little
attention to him, but which has begun
to understand his thinking, because
the ecol-nomic (ecologic and economic) crisis affects everyone. He likes
to quote the Chinese proverb, If we
dont change direction, we will probably

end up where we are headed, adding

to a disaster. In one of his numerous
essays, The Point of Chaos, published
in 2007, he wrote that 2012 was the deadline for stopping the mad dash toward
self-destruction. For this reason, we asked
him with a feeling of dread:

Professor, are we still in time?

Yes, I think so. Changes occur rapidly,
not only in nature, but also culturally, in
the way of thinking and reacting. James
Lovelock, who conceived the idea of Gaia,
the Earth, as a living, sentient organism,
has always maintained that only nature
manages to produce true changes, and
that humanity doesnt change on its own.
We are at the threshold of chaos, at a crucial fork in the road, but we can change.
What signs do you see?
The increase in spirituality and in the
techniques of meditation, the growing

concern for the environment. People

begin to understand that we cannot continue in the same way. Sustainability is not
an abstract concept, it is something that
takes shape in our consciousness. A new
literature is being born, a new concentration of ideas. I see great signs of interest
in creating a network, in getting together.
It is as if a gigantic puzzle were putting
itself together. On December 6, I gave a
lecture on the Web; a hundred thousand
people registered for it. To reach that
many people at one time I would have
had to use telepathy. Today telepathy is
the Internet.

Is change an option or a necessity?

A necessity, undoubtedly. We can chose
to make it quickly, on the wave of the painful crisis that we are living through, and
perceive the good in the crisis (because
it is there, as it is in every revolution), or
do it with our backs against the wall,
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Society

The Mystic Economist

The theories of Clive Hamilton:

A fascinating oxymoron
It is an oxymoron: economics and mysticism are at odds with each other, even
if there is an investment fund named
Anima (Soul), even if Eldar Shafir,
professor of psychology at Princeton,
has discovered that our choices about
money and business affairs are emotional and anything but rational. If
you think that mysticism has nothing
to do with economics dont tell Clive
Hamilton, 59, who teaches public ethics
at Charles Start University, Australia.
Or tell him, and he will convince you of
the contrary, citing the tales of aboriginal sacred places or the speeches by the
chief of the Blackfeet, thus demolishing the myth of the Enlightenment and
of rationalism.
His book The Mystic Economist
(Affari Italiani Publishing Co.) provided
the title for a conference given by the
Arbor Foundation (last November in
Milan) and continues to make its way
around the world accompanied alternatively by admiration and scandal. The
prevalent criticism of Hamilton is that he
is less an economist and more a mystic, of

pressed there by problems. Homo sapiens is intelligent, so lets see how much.
Intelligence lies in foresight, not just
experimentation. This is the challenge.
The first step is to understand; the second
is awareness of the necessity. There is
no mandatory route. We can realize this
new vision by means of art, spirituality,
religion, science.

What practical course of action can

we take?
We can start with ourselves. Each individual must be sustainable. Each must
avoid, as much as possible, consuming
energy that is not renewable and not
waste or discard indiscriminately. We
must change our view of things. For a
long time we have followed the classic economic criteria. The economy has
been considered the primary system and
nature a sub-system. It is necessary to
have the courage to invert the perspective and say that the opposite is true.
Man must be thought of as integral and
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giving religion the place of science. But

it is too easy to dismiss him in this way.
I maintain, he explains, that we must
be at the same time chemists and alchemists, economists and moral philosophers. We need to transcend duality and
find harmony with the world. In place
of traditional economics, including environmental, that puts a price on everythingforests, clean water, breathable
air, the last black rhinoceros, a koalahe
proposes another idea. And this idea is
that An ethical decision must precede
any economic analysis. He collects the
stories of mines in places that are sacred

We can start with

ourselves. Each individual
must be sustainable.
not dominant. Seven billion people must
survive and develop. It is possible only in
harmony and coherence with nature.

Isnt nature violent?

Violence is part of the chain of life.
But, unlike in our system, in nature there
is violence only when it is necessary, not
purely for pleasure or for profit. Nature
is coherent; we are the ones who have
become incoherent.
Could you give an example of an
erroneous assertion in which we
have believed or still do believe?
Here are a few: 1) Everyone is entitled
to follow his own interests. 2) When we
serve our own interests we contribute to
the general good; after all, the market

to the collective memory (Coronation

Hill, in Australia), of deforestation and
dams, of people who calculate the cost
in dollars of the depletion of the ozone
layer, and of people who refuse to put a
price on the environment. This makes
us a little ashamed that shopping is a
significant part of life. And then, as the
final act, he pulls the mystical rabbit out
of the hat of logicrational economics,
he says, cannot suppress the symbolic,
which existed much earlier.
Each of us is an expression of the
whole universe. This is why everything
is sacred; even the profane is a manifestation of the sacred, even the economy
is sacred. And since Hamilton knows
well that for some the word mysticism
is almost an insult, referring to unscientific, illogical thought by people who
believe in things which dont exist, he
lays the basis for the new ecological economics, which sees humanity in mystic
connection with the natural world.
In this way, without hesitation, we
can declare ourselves both scientists
and mystics. n

distributes the profits. 3) Life is a struggle for survival; only the strongest will
prevail. 4) In the struggle to be the best
(in terms of power, wealth, and success),
the end justifies the means. 5) The more
money you have, the better you are.
6) If you want peace, prepare for war.
7) The answer to every question is, more
technology and more efficiency. 8) For
the satisfaction of our needs, nature is an
inexhaustible resource and a bottomless
garbage bin. We can continue.

Agreed, an entire system is in decline.

Are some of the prophets of degrowth,
like Serge Latouche, right?
His point of view is different. I dont talk
about degrowth, but rather about transformation, about alternative growth. If
I go shopping by bicycle, instead of by
car, perhaps I get tired, but it is healthier
and it is good for me. Consuming less, or
differently, can be helpful in living
a better life. I lived for ten years in
New York and I ran away to the beautiful

Photo: J. Ziewe Ikon Images / Corbis

Tuscan countryside. I have a garden,

I produce, I eat what I grow, and I am
more aware and efficient. New technologies can be helpful to us. When I see bike
sharing and electric cars in the big cities,
I understand that there is change taking
place. We simply have to speed it up.

How do we do that?
By developing renewable energy, by
exploring markets linked to new technologies, by believing in economic ethics.
Ethics, in many cases, is ornamental in
business; using a part of the profits to
help someone will ease my conscience.
Instead, ethics must be a matter of substance. The positive part has to be integrated. Making a profit and doing good
cannot be alternatives. Improving the life
of others while making a profit is possible
(think of the Ethical Bank) and that is how
we become coherent. We will discover
that awareness can yield profits.

However, its difficult to change

behavior, dont you think?

neurons. It is something that pervades

the entire universe.

Certainly, I imagine it would be difficult.

However, many young people who do
not wish to become part of a destructive mechanism, those who have ideals
and are not blinded by the folly of possessions, are already at work differently.
They are not seeking only business
interests, but human interests. When we
speak of the power of love we are not
speaking of New Age, we are speaking
of the humanism that founded the great
European tradition, the Renaissance.
There is no development in solitude.
There must be a return to the satisfaction in work, which has been lost. Today,
work is a source of anguish because it is
missing, because if you have it you must
accept it on any conditions. Science,
and in particular quantum physics,
explains that everything is connected,
that we are a whole of interconnected
destinies. Awareness is not a byproduct
of the brain, of a complex network of

Must we change from a system

based on egotism to another based
on altruism?
Its not altruism. It is convenience. The
well-being of another is my own. My
responsibility extends to all those who
are touched by my actionsmy neighbor and the factory worker where they
are making the telephone that I will use.
Every action is global, planetary, for the
corporations as well as for the individual.
During my concerts, when I was a young
musician, I had the sensation of being
part of a larger universe. If we understand this, there will be solidarity, a better
relationship with nature and among
human beings.
And how do you see yourself
in the midst of all this?
Its a fascinating and exciting moment.
Im very happy to be alive now. n
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